Category Archives: Christianity

Your spiritual default mode

Posted on by
Reply

Tim Keller has written a profound and insightful book, THE PRODIGAL GOD. Near the end he makes this observation [emphasis added]…

Religion operates on the principles of “I obey — therefore i am accepted by God.” The basic operating principle of the gospel is “I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ — therefore I obey.” As we have seen, believing the gospel is how a person first makes a connection to God. It gives us a new relationship with God and a new identity. We must not think, however, that once believing it, the Christian is now finished with the gospel message. A fundamental insight of Martin Luther’s was that “religion” is the default mode of the human heart. Your computer operates automatically in a default mode unless you deliberately tell it to do something else. So Luther says that even after you are converted by the gospel your heart will go back to operating on other principles unless you deliberately, repeatedly set it to gospel-mode. [pp. 114-115]

Cutting edge Christianity?

Posted on by
4

Modern day evangelicals have little appetite for sound doctrine, but have a hankering for “cutting edge” stuff. Dr Guy Waters, recently made this observation about the the evangelical church in our day:

Biblical doctrine and the Bible’s teaching on the Christian life is, at one level, quite boring. It is simply, lacking in gadgetry and spectacle, and unchanging. Whether it is the latest theological ‘hand-me-down’ from the academy, or the most recent technique or movement for living the Christian life, the church seems to have an unwholesome longing for what is promoted as ‘new, fresh and relevant.’ Of course, in reality there is nothing new under the sun. ‘Fresh’ and ‘cutting edge’ are terms that often mask our ignorance of church history. If we did enough digging, we would find that the church has long ago weighed, tried and discarded most of what is being presented to us as the ‘latest thing.’ God’s admonition is especially timely in our present age:

Thus says the LORD, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls.”
(Jeremiah 6;16)

— Dr Guy Waters, Assoc. Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, MS; quoted on page 102 in Marin Downes’ book RISKING THE TRUTH